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Ducati commits to the rules that were stated to everybody and accepts the ECU disadvantage. The Evil Empire throws a tantrum and Dorna changes the rules on them last minute. I can't even believe how unfair that is. I just hope that (however unlikely) Ducati gets their shit together and clinches podiums even if they get bumped up to the Factory 2 class. Poor Cal, getting jerked around like that.

What Honda is primarily not happy about was the big software update which is basically Ducati's ECU software being ported to the open class. Ducati gets close to the electronics they had as a factory team but get more unfrozen engines for development, gas and a softer tire (which they probably won't get much use out of).

Honda could have cared less if Ducati went open without bringing their developed software. While it's easy to jump on the hating on Honda bandwagon you also have to realize that Honda was pressured by Dorna to produce a production racer at their expense which is now getting beat by last year's tech 3 bikes repackaged as open bikes which likely cost Yamaha very little to convert. Honda is getting screwed pretty badly this year by Dorna suddenly changing the rules or not defining the classes well enough.

You've hit the nail on the head as to why Honda is angry but they still should've known better. It's not Nakamoto's nor Suppo's first rodeo, they should've seen that someone would run a prototype under open rules. While it was unlikely Yamaha would submit their software for the open ECU, it should've been clear that Ducati might be desperate enough to do so.

Dorna did draft some crappy rules, but Honda should've pushed to get them tightened up a long time ago, not 1 month before the season starts. And Dorna NEVER should've changed the rules at the last minute like this.

Honda is getting screwed pretty badly this year by Dorna suddenly changing the rules.

The reason Honda didn't just hand over their old bikes was because they want to protect their secret sauce. So they put up some production bikes, which look woefully underpowered. Basically, Honda made sure these bikes don't ever have a chance of competing at the front.

Honda throws tantrum and rules change. Honda was the biggest reason for the switch from 990cc to the 800cc.

Now they saw someone else try to take advantage of the rules. And they were not happy. So the rules were changed at the 12th hour.

My thoughts exactly. How the fuck can you change the rules now?! They've set the rules multiple years out for A REASON. People commit millions in budgets and business/team plans and you're going to dash all of that because Honda didn't have the foresight to consider the advantages in an open class that EVERYONE knew was designed to encourage people to take on the spec ECUs? At what point will the integrity of the series start to take priority over the Yamaha/Honda oligarchies?!

I have to agree. Honda should've known that someone could exploit the rules in the manner that Ducati has. Sure Ducati may not be following the original 'intent' of the rules, but in racing intent means little to nothing. Honda simply got caught with their pants down.

No. Ducati is following the exact intent of the rules. The intent of the rules is to motivate teams to move toward the spec ECU's which are being made mandatory in 2017. Ducati is doing exactly what Dorna is hoping teams will do. This is all about Honda (and/or Yamaha?) throwing their budgetary weight around to try to get special treatment.

I've always wished that Dorna would put on a Moto2 style race for the MotoGP riders at the end of the season, an All-Star style race where everyone is on the same bike.

How about before the opening race you have a 10 lap sprint on Hondas, then mid season a 10 lap spring on Yamahas, then after Valencia have a 10 lapper on Ducatis. I'd love to see Marc on a Ducati/Yamaha and JL on a Honda would be wild.

But of course, contracts and mindless factory bosses would refuse to let their cashcow do anything but generate income for them.

I've spent more time than I'd like to imagine fantasizing about winning a PowerBall jackpot of $600m+ and dumping ALL of it into MotoGP, buy my way to the top, run a few teams and radically change the way things are being run.

I've spent more time than I'd like to imagine fantasizing about winning a PowerBall jackpot of $600m+ and dumping ALL of it into MotoGP, buy my way to the top, run a few teams and radically change the way things are being run.

I have too, but you would run dry after a few seasons. The money would disappear faster than you can say abracadabra.

Well, what was the whole reason for the rule in the first place? As Dorna told it, it was to make things cheaper and easier for privateers. Not to have factory teams spending more money on engine development and the same money on electronics while getting more fuel.

Of course Dorna's ultimate motive was to get everyone on the spec ECU. But if in the meantime they've created an avenue for Ducati to spend a lot more money while they try to catch up, it certainly fails the 'reduce costs' goal.

Long term the idea would be to tamp down the spec ECU once everyone is on board. But if that is the case, why allow Ducati to run their advanced electronics spec and spend a bunch of money now?

Wouldn't it make more sense for Open teams to run electronics closer to what the spec ECU would be? Otherwise teams will have to spend money and effort trying to get the best out of the current open ECU, only to have it be useless next year (or whenever they go spec ECU).

Either way the privateer teams are kind of getting screwed because they certainly don't have the resources to get the best out of the electronics package Ducati submitted.

Either way the privateer teams are kind of getting screwed because they certainly don't have the resources to get the best out of the electronics package Ducati submitted.

That's why the update only ran in the background and has not been made usable yet. Only there so the teams can see it and try to get accustomed to it so that down the road they may be able to use it if Dorna sees fit.

Here I sit, a few weeks until the season starts and for the first time in over 5 years I don't have a MotoGP online pass. I will not give Dorna any more of my hard earned money until they get some intelligent people involved and stop ACTIVELY FUCKING UP THE SPORT.

This is a microcosm of the world these days though, everyone trying to become billionares instead of just doing their jobs. Hospitals are for profit more than prohealth. We can't even watch motorcycles ride around in circles for 45 minutes without corruption and money playing a massive role in deciding the winners and losers.

I've been doing that a lot lately. Left BBVA after the money laundering story came out. Can't shop at Walmart/Sam's Club, won't eat fast food chicken and I TRY to avoid fast food beef. I'll never fill up at BP. But I have Comcast internet because they have ran every other ISP out of my city.

The list goes on and on. Sucks feeling like I'm the only one doing this though.

If it's any consolation, you're not. After Exxon Valdez, I stopped using Exxon gas for years. Now the same with BP after Deepwater Horizon. I've actually started using Exxon again after reading reports of their now-stellar safety record.

A cynic might point to these choices as meaningless. I don't care. They're my choices.

totally off topic, but the gas stations you go to are just franchises... you're likely buying BP gas no matter where you buy it ( :( ), it all comes from the same refineries no matter what the sign is on the gas station.

From Ezpeleta's comments, a Factory 2 class looks set to be created in response to Ducati's move, with machines starting under Open regulations, but having their race fuel and engine changes reduced if they achieve a certain level of top three race results.

In other words, if you actually do well in the Open class, they're going to punish you for it. That is exactly what this is.

This kind of idiocy pisses me off. A lot. I started last year's racing season with MotoGP, WSBK, and F1. F1 dropped off quickly because yawn, and WSBK dropped off a bit later because of time constraints. MotoGP was super fun, but I found myself enjoying Moto2 and 3 more than GP rather frequently.

With all the excitement around A. Espargaró's results and Ducati going Open, I was expecting an awesome season. And now Dorna is looking to make it artificially dramatic—a la "reality TV".

I'd love to see Crutchlow come to a stop right before the finish line, let someone pass him, then cross over so that Ducati can maintain a true Open Class qualification instead of being slotted into Factory2.

You know, instead of crying foul, why don't Honda and Yamaha double down and use their open bikes as a testing bed the way Ducati chose to? It's obvious that that saw the Open class as a "grid filler" class and didn't take the time to closely read the rules (we know Honda has a hard time with this considering last years Phillip Island debacle). Take the opportunity to develop their engines in the open class. There are some GREAT riders in that class.

I know. I don't even really mind the two classes of bikes. It's the blatantly obvious bending over and manipulating the rules according to what one team says/wants/threatens/bitches about that makes my blood boil.

“We have dangled all these carrots with the intention of getting the factories to seriously consider changing to Open rules, running the Dorna software,” says MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb. Motorsports Magazine

And i guess Ezpeleta feels like they should snatch them carrots away. Its clear we dont know everything going on behind the scenes, but whatever his reasoning, Carmello is coming off like a spineless douche. I can't imagine the frustration i'd be feeling if i were a part of the Ducati team right now.

I know you're all mad at this and that it kinda sucks, and to an extent I agree, but I don't think it's as huge of a deal as you're all making it out to be. Just keep watching the sport we all love! It'll all turn out well in the end.

Stay positive! This season is going to rock. I think some of you need to tune out of all the news and the bullshit and just wait for the 23rd to roll around.

This is my thought too. Ducati/open bikes haven't even scored a single podium, and already people are flying off the handle. By this same ruling though, maybe the factory bikes should be penalized if they start scoring too many podiums or wins.

Yamaha and Honda have earned the right to win, they make better machines, and cutting the legs off your competition is not racing. This is supposed to be "Prototype" racing, NOT "Sympathy Racing" for lesser machines. WSBK is where these CRT/Open/Factory2 machines belong, if they want to race motorcycles. Standard electronics in not "Prototype Motorcycles", what's next, standard gear boxes, suspension? Putting limits on the machines takes the "Art" out of development, and puts the race results into the hands of the rule makers, and leaves the door open for other "people/groups" to influence/corrupt race results, this is not prototype racing anymore. They should have an asterisk next to all the machines describing how race direction has limited their performance threshold for the race. (Ranting) IMO

If one organization could afford spend a few billion dollars developing an essentially unbeatable self-adjusting robot bike and hire the associated team of computer and robot techs as well as a star rider to sit on it, then proceed to win every race by a wide margin, that would be bad for the sport. I think that fan interest would wane as a result, even though the new billion dollar machine would be setting lap records all over the place.

I like to see technological advancement on one hand, but I really hate the direction that it has taken with the electronics. Where do you draw the line? I think that all forms of traction control should be removed from racing. It should be a safety feature for passenger vehicles, not a replacement for skill in motorsport.

You know, I agree with you to an extent. But changing the rules constantly, sometimes mid season, puts a huge competitive disadvantage on smaller race teams like Ducati.

They just don't have the huge team of engineers and R&D resources to be able to adapt that quickly to new tires, engine regs, electronics, etc. The rule changes are ostensibly to lower the costs of being competitive, but all it really does is give the better funded teams a constant leg up.